Do you have your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Rite Aid deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Rite Aid deals post will be deleted.

Buy 3 Participating Products, Get 4,000 Bonus RewardsThermacare Wraps, Advil, Advil PM, Children or Infant Drops – $4.99
Use $3/1 printable
Or buy 2 and use Buy One Get One Free printableAs low as $0.66 each after coupon and Bonus Rewards

Do you have your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Walgreens deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your Walgreens deals post will be deleted.

Do you have your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link below. To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your CVS deals post. Links going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog besides the direct link to your CVS deals post will be deleted.

In March of 2011, my family of 6 moved to Panama City, Panama. About 6 weeks later, we received our shipment of household goods. As I was unpacking it, I began to realize how much STUFF we had… and that we had easily lived without it for 6 weeks.

Did we really need it all?

Those thoughts took a backseat while we got adjusted to our new home. But in October of 2011, I began to clean up the house for my friend who was coming for a visit. Again, I realized we had too much stuff, so I began to purge.

Too many bags later, I had gotten rid of almost all of our excess. I realized that we simply had more than we’d ever use, and I did not want more coming in at Christmas.

After talking to my husband, the decision was made that we were truly going to give Christmas away. I posted a note on my blog asking anyone who was planning to give any of us a present to please donate the gift or the money to a charity of their choosing.

We sat the kids down and explained the situation. After MANY conversations, they understood and got behind the plan.

On Christmas morning, they each had one present to open. (What can I say, Grandmas can’t be stopped.) Then, we began talking about all the kids who would be receiving presents in their names. Operation Christmas Child, Salvation Army, local church groups, and more!

By the end of the conversation, we were all overwhelmed with the truth of just how much more blessed it is to give than to receive. So much so, that this year, we will be continuing to “give Christmas away”.

Have you ever “given Christmas away”?

Lisa is a wife and mom of 4 living in Panama City. She blogs at PanaMOM.com.

I am a firm believer that you should always help with a need when you can, but when my husband was in his last year of school, we hardly had enough of anything to “help” ourselves, let alone anyone else. I knew there had to be some way I could still touch someone else, make their life a little easier, show them that they are not forgotten… I just had to get creative about it!

For some reason seeing homeless/needy people on the side of the road has always pulled on my hearts strings, hard. It is difficult for me to imagine falling to that level, to have nothing at all and, it seems, no one at all. My children must have inherited that same compassion, as they are constantly willing to try and give out money to the needy. This seemed like a “good enough idea” until, well, we didn’t have any extra money… and by that, I mean none.

This is where that “creativity” comes in to play…

For the most part of that last year of school we had to survive somehow, and cutting money from our grocery bills seemed like it could make the biggest impact, so I taught myself to coupon. I would request samples from companies just for the coupons that came with them. After a while I had more toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, floss, soap, cleansers, lotions, etc. than I would ever use or care to have lying around. My daughter and I decided to put those samples to good use and make little “care packs” to pass out to the needy people we saw on the sides of the road.

We decided we would make a goal to fill ten care packs, once we had given them all away we would make more. We used brown paper bag lunch sacks, which my daughter colored with bible verses and pictures, and filled them with all the samples we accumulated along with some water bottles, cans of soup and plastic spoons we found on sale. Due to the samples, some of the care packs were geared more toward one gender and in that case we would mark the bottom of the sacks “male” or “female”. Once we met our goal, I told my daughter to put two in the car as we set out to run errands.

I didn’t know until we were way down the road, but my daughter had chosen to bring one female and one male pack instead of the many other gender neutral ones. I said a silent prayer as we drove around that we would be able to find “a male and female” to pass them out to (seemed a little strange praying for homeless couple to appear!). Soon after as we pulled up to a red light, we saw them… two needy people, one male and one female! My daughter was ecstatic, and after we handed over the packs, the smiled on her face was priceless!

This small act may not seem like much to anyone else, but by performing it I was able to look and reach beyond my own financial situation, make the day of a stranger in need, and teach my daughter (and myself) that we can always help others in need… no matter what our circumstances may be.

If you too are wondering how you can help those around you in creative, low cost ways, I have four ideas below.

1. My Coke Rewards:

You can enter online the codes found on the caps and boxes of Coke product to redeem them for prizes. If you already drink Coke products, this costs nothing extra to you. Consider giving prizes like a McDonald’s gift card, a coupon for a free 20 oz. Coke product, or other gifts to those standing out in the elements.

2. Free Hair Cut Referral Cards:

Many stylists will give you a referral card for a free haircut if you simply ask. Think about asking for one of these the next time you are in a salon. You could pass it out to someone who might be unemployed and need a hair cut for an upcoming job interview.

3. Pampers & Huggies Rewards:

Many diaper companies enclose codes in their products that you can enter online in exchange for prizes. Many of the prizes are toys for babies and toddlers. Collect points all year and consider redeeming your points for toys that you can donate to needy kids or Toys for Tots at Christmas time. This takes no more than entering the codes — and shipping is even free!

4. Candy for the Troops:

Many organizations are more than happy to take your extra Christmas candy and send it to troops overseas. It’s a great way to bless someone else — and save yourself some extra calories!